


Flowers

by LivTheWarrior



Category: MCSM, Minecraft (Video Game), Minecraft Story Mode
Genre: AND I know I write about ocs but hear me out, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, I love my ocs, also this has angst but its good angst. healing angst, because every fic I write has to have some of that :3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 00:16:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18435089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivTheWarrior/pseuds/LivTheWarrior
Summary: Its been two years since the Witherstorm's death and things haven't seemed to get that much easier. Seth is still full of regrets he shouldn't have to deal with. Luckily, Jesse has a plan (she always does) to help him, and maybe even herself, begin to move on from the past.





	Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm pretty positive that this fic explains my OC's story enough for you guys to understand but you can ask me questions if you need to (I would simply LOVE to talk about him if there's anyone that's genuinely interested). This fic is honestly just a nice hc that I came up with one day and I decided that I needed to share it. 
> 
>  
> 
> And of course, feel free to offer critiques or correct me on misspellings or grammar mistakes! Just be polite!

It was the second anniversary of the Witherstorm’s defeat. Since Jesse didn’t have the chance to celebrate the first anniversary due to a certain series of _portal mishaps_ , she decided to throw a large party this year. Everyone was in the town, praising their heroes and celebrating the death of the Witherstorm.

Except for Seth, however. It’s not that he wasn’t invited or anything, he just didn’t really want to go. Being around anything in relation to or thinking about that monster makes his head throb.

He still has flashes. He never _could_ figure out exactly what happened to him, other than the fact that he still has the Witherstorm’s powers. Jesse has come to the conclusion that something happened due to him being the first one to be… _‘taken prisoner’_ … by the beast. Everyone has just decided to go with it, considering that it was the only good explanation they had. Seth doesn’t really care about the time he was inside of that thing though, since it was the aftermath that hurt worse. Running off to be by himself, going home and finding nothing but bedrock, the vivid nightmares, the way he looked as if he could just wither away and turn into dust right then and there, how he would sometimes say “we” instead of “I,” the unimaginable hunger. At first, he would make himself sick by eating too much, desperately trying to get rid of the constant twists of pain in his stomach. He kept to himself for a while after the end of it all. He knew better than to go near anyone. Every tiny little flicker in his emotions had consequences. The ground would shake when he got angry. Or some blocks would come flying towards his head from random directions. He just couldn’t risk hurting anyone (else) because of it. _Bad times_ , he thinks. 

But in the end, he ran out of supplies and had no place to go to get more. He had only wanted to stop into town for a few minutes to get what he needed. _Just keep your emotions in check, keep it together, act normal_ , he had told himself. Those words were his lifeline. 

Jesse had interrupted his plans that day. Soon after, he was having to help her explain exactly _what_ he was to her friends. He remembers explaining to them how the two met. He was told to be a human shield of sorts for the command block when the Super TNT had been detonated, so he was draped over it. He lost consciousness for a few minutes due to the blast. He remembers waking up only to find Jesse looming over him. They don’t get to talk for long before the storm remakes itself and so forth. The next time they met had been in the actual Witherstorm. Then, after its defeat, he managed to make a quick escape. The hero’s friends said nothing during the time it took for Jesse and Seth to tell their story. He hated that. Jesse eventually offers him a place to stay in town. Seth takes it against his better(?) judgement. 

It was difficult to get her friends to trust him. They were wary at first, and rightfully so. He warmed up to Petra and Lukas, however, during their journey through the Portal Network. After they had become close, the rest of the New Order followed suit. Minus Ivor. They were still on pretty rocky terms, but at least Seth can stand to be around the potionist now (without attacking him, yelling in his face, or jut flat out being hostile towards him). Minus that, everything had been normal.

The loud _**crack**_ of a distant firework knocks him out of his thoughts. He doesn’t bother to look behind him. He settles for glancing at the colorful reflection in the metal roof he was situated on.

“Hey.” 

The man does turn this time to see the famous “Hero-in-Residence” looking at him. She doesn’t say anything, settling for walking forward just enough to be standing in the space to his left. 

Seth opens his mouth first. “Shouldn’t you be celebrating or something? You were the one that killed the Witherstorm, after all.” 

Jesse just smiles in the way she always does. “Didn’t really feel like celebrating. Plus, I’ve got something I wanna do with you.” 

“Does someone know you’ll be gone? I’d hate for your people to get into a fritz just because you were gone for more than five minutes.” His lips are tugged upwards into a quirky grin, and his voice is dripping with sarcasm.

“Yeah, they do.” Her sarcastic tone hangs in the air like a hot, muggy day before she turns and makes her way to the stairs that lead off of the roof. “Come on, we have a bit of a walk ahead of us.” 

Seth looks in the direction of the mostly set sun. “Its getting dark. What about the mobs?” 

“I’ve defeated world-eating storms,” Jesse begins, counting everything she lists on her fingers, “ex-rivals, axe murderers, computers, old-builders…” 

“Okay, okay,” Seth interrupts, hands raised in a classic pose of _I surrender_ , “I get it. A few mobs are nothing to you.” He then murmurs two more words before following Jesse's lead down the steps. _“Show-off.”_

The smirk on her face is contagious. “You know it.” 

————

The walk does take a while, as predicted. It goes surprisingly well, since the pair is able to sneak by most of the mobs, and any that finds them are taken down with little to no effort. 

Seth had been drifting off when he rams into Jesse. She rolls her eyes before pointing ahead of her. “We’re here,” she says. There’s a strange form of sympathy in her voice. 

Stepping to Jesse’s right side and looking ahead, Seth can understand why. 

There is a very, _very_ deep slope in front of them. At the bottom of said slope lies bedrock. This layer of bedrock stretches out for miles. The view takes Seth breath away, but not from amazement. He turns to look at Jesse, his cold eyes piercing through her very soul. “Why did you bring us _here_ of all places.” 

His reaction was all but unexpected, but it sends chills down the hero's back regardless. “I told you this already. I have something I wanna do with you. Call it a surprise.” 

“A surprise. Exactly how is any of _this_ ,” he waves his arm in front of him to indicate the nothingness in front of them, “going to be a surprise?” The young adult couldn’t see anything even remotely nice coming out of the destruction from the Witherstorm (and in a way from him in his mind).

“You’ll see.” Classic, cryptic Jesse. With that, she starts sliding down the slope in front of them. “Race ya!” 

Seth’s fear and doubt goes away from a moment. Jesse did always have an aura that could automatically make Seth calm down. “No fair!”

————

It takes a few minutes to slide all the way down. It was a big slope, after all. The duo skids to a halt at the bottom, giggling away like children. Jesse beckons Seth forwards with a swift hand motion. Once they reach an area that seems to be somewhat in the middle of the destruction, Jesse slides a backpack off of her shoulders. She pulls out a stack of dirt, a single block of netherrack, flint and steel, and several pots of vividly colored flowers. Jesse sees the confusion on Seth’s face but says nothing as she places the netherrack down and uses it to make a small fire.

“What are we doing with a bunch of flowers?” Seth questions, unable to hold back his curiosity. 

Jesse ignores the question. “Help me place these down. Pretty please??” She bats her eyes before passing him some of the dirt. 

They make an 8x8 square. Jesse has been quiet the entire time but now picks up a flower pot from the set. The flower inside is a beautiful azure and it's full with an array of small, triangular petals. The light of the fire highlights the plant in just the right places, adding to its beauty. A cornflower. Her voice is nothing more but a whisper. “You… mentioned at some point that your mother liked these, right?” 

Seth’s heart tightens. He had only been 19 when the Witherstorm was created. His mother, his siblings. They had all died in the chaos. Seth had been blaming himself for their deaths for a long time now, but he has never mentioned this feeling to anyone. Jesse senses his inner conflict and puts a single hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to do this but” she sighs, “I thought that maybe we could try and grow something down here. I know a few flowers isn’t much, but it would be a nice memorial for all the lives lost. And if these flowers manage to make it down here…. then that _means_ something. It means that, even in the mess that the Witherstorm made, we can still rebuild. We can still move on.” She has stepped away from her companion, eyes glittering with a determination only _she_ could have. “The pain doesn’t go away, but this could still give us some peace. It could give the souls that were lost peace. So.” She holds the plant out once again in offering. “Plant it if you want. We can take turns.” 

Seth does decide to plant it. His hands shook the entire time, and the only thing keeping him moving was… well, he wasn’t sure. He steps back. “For my mother.” His voice wavers as if it were impossible to speak such a simple phrase.

Jesse’s turn. She brandishes an elegant red hibiscus. “For Ellegaard. The Old Order may have made some bad choices in the past, but she died a bigger hero than the rest of us.” 

Seth plants a white tulip in the name of his siblings. He starts to feel better about this, knowing that he now had something for him to remember his family with.

That was when Jesse pulls out another flower from her pack. It’s the biggest of them all. “A stargazer lily,” she says. The petals fade from a soft white on the edges to a more dynamic pink in the center. There is some light yellow in the very center of the flower. It stands tall and proud as if it knew it had an important role. Jesse plants it. When she turns, Seth can see the tears in her eyes. “That one…” she chokes out, “is for Reuben.” 

Seth remembers watching Jesse's beloved pig fall inside of the Witherstorm. But he was never present for the death itself. That doesn’t matter to him. He knows what it's like to lose the people he deeply cared for. And so, with no hesitation, he wraps his arms around Jesse. He holds her tight and gently pats her back, just like he would have done with his younger siblings. 

They don’t really say anything. They both needed those precious minutes of silence. Seth reflects on his past, on his family and the people he cared for. Jesse thinks back on her fond memories of Reuben and all the fun times they had. 

They separate and finish planting the flowers that were left in honor of all the other victims, and sit by the fire until the sun rises. They tell stories about themselves, their friends, and the life they had before they became who they were today. 

When they packed up and began to head home, however, they glanced back at the flowers, and then at each other. They both knew that they would do this again next year.


End file.
